Italy loses Champions League place

The number of Champions League places allocated to clubs in Serie A will be reduced to just three from the start of the 2012-13 season.

Despite Inter's victory in the competition last year poor performances in general from Italian clubs over the last decade has seen their co-efficient ranking plummet.

Inter, Roma and Milan all lost the home legs of their Champions League knock out ties this month, making the prospect of any Italian team reaching the Quarter-Finals slim to none.

The distance between Italy and Germany in the co-efficient rankings is now too big to recover and in two years' time the team that finishes third in Serie A will have to go through the preliminary stages to reach the Champions League outright.

There are also ramifications for participation in the Europa League, as from 2012-13 the team that finishes sixth in Serie A will stay at home.